Dixieland Band, top broodmare sire, dead at 30

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Dixieland Band, the sire of more than 100 stakes winners and an influential broodmare sire, has died at age 30.

Lane's End Farm announced Thursday morning that Dixieland Band, a son of Northern Dancer, was euthanized Wednesday due to the infirmities of old age. Dixieland Band had been pensioned at the Versailles, Ky., farm since 2008. He will be buried at the Lane's End cemetery.

Campaigned by the late Mary Sharp, the Maryland-bred Dixieland Band was a foundation stallion for Lane's End. Before retiring there in 1985, Dixieland Band won the 1983 Pennsylvania Derby and 1984 Massachusetts Handicap, both Grade 2, and a pair of ungraded stakes, the 1982 Maryland Juvenile Championship Stakes and 1983 Southampton Handicap. He also placed in four other stakes. Upon his retirement, he had earned $441,320 from wins in 8 of 24 lifetime starts, with 3 second-place and 4 third-place finishes.

Dixieland Band, a son of the Grade 1-winning mare Mississippi Mud, made his deepest mark as a stallion. He was one of North America's leading sires in 1993 and again in 1999 as the sire of such runners as Drum Taps, a European champion and two-time winner of the Ascot Gold Cup; Cotton Carnival, Canada's champion 3-year-old filly in 1997; and Grade 1 or Group 1 winners Dixie Union, Dixie Brass, Egyptband, Spinning Round, Alwajeeha, and Sharp Lisa.

Dixieland Band was leading broodmare sire in 2004 and was among that list's top 10 stallions for most of the past decade. He currently ranks seventh on the North American broodmare sires' list.

As a broodmare sire, Dixieland Band is represented by 134 stakes winners, including 2001 Kentucky Derby winner Monarchos and 2007 Derby victor Street Sense. He also is the broodmare sire of 2008 Kentucky Derby runner-up Eight Belles, Blue Grass Stakes winners Bandini and Dominican, multiple Grade 1 winners Exotic Wood and Southern Image, and current sires as First Samurai, Pollard's Vision, and Limehouse.